If you blinked in August, you missed it. Coca-Cola set up Jacobs’ Soda Fountain at The Battery for a couple of weeks this month, and it’s already gone, which is exactly why I want to talk about it.

Quick history, because this one is actually good. On May 8, 1886, Coca-Cola was served for the very first time at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in downtown Atlanta. That’s 140 years ago this year. The popup rebuilt that moment inside a shipping container a few steps from Truist Park, done up like a late-1800s pharmacy counter with apothecary details, warm lighting, and historic Coca-Cola artifacts tucked around the space. Hosts in period costume walked you through the whole origin story.

I went with my dad on a quiet afternoon and we basically had the place to ourselves. No line, nobody rushing us out. If you were picturing a game-day mob scene, that was not our experience at all, and honestly it made the whole thing better. The hosts had time to actually talk to us.

Now, the drink. The 1886 Perfect Serve gets measured, mixed, and poured by hand, and I walked in fully expecting the ritual to be the interesting part and the Coke to just be, you know, Coke. Wrong. It was SO good. Colder than any fountain Coke I’ve had, way fizzier, and the texture was completely different. My dad said it before I did. I don’t know what they were doing back there with the ice and the pour, but it worked.

Here’s the part that got me: the whole thing was $3. Drink and cup, together. The cup is a flared silhouette modeled after the original soda fountain glassware, it’s yours to take home, and mine is currently sitting on my shelf where it will remain forever. Three dollars for that plus a piece of Coca-Cola’s 140th is not a hard math problem.

Is it a little annoying to read about something you can’t go to anymore? Yes. But Coca-Cola clearly has a taste for this kind of thing, and Atlanta is the one city where the history is genuinely ours. If they run it back, go on a weekday, go early, and get the cup.